(a) “The story is a cleverly constructed parable about the collision of orthodoxy and modernity, and it illustrates the author’s most rewarding themes: the emptiness of living without traditions and the perils of stubbornly clinging to them.”

(b) “We see his characters aggressively mapping their destinies, but we also know that, in the novel’s larger scope, every action is subject to the humbling forces of time and chance.”

“Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.”

(5) The Karakuwa House – The perfect monk house? It’s called the gassho which means praying hands.

(6) Quote from Frederick Crews on E.M. Forster

“The landscapes in his novels have an almost pantheistic vitality, and they are usually enlisted on the side of self-realization for the central characters. To be attuned to the spirit of the countryside is not simply to resist the shallowness of London, but to be awake to the full life of the senses, without which there is no real awakening of the soul.”

(7) Another quote from The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton

“A second compelling claim was made for the visual when the early theologians speculated that it might be easier to become a faithful servant of God by looking than by reading. They argued that mankind could more effectively be shaped by architecture than by Scripture. Because we were creatures of sense, spiritual principles stood a better chance of fortifying our souls if we took them in via our eyes rather than via our intellect. We might learn more about humility by gazing at an arrangement of tiles than by studying the Gospels, and more about the nature of kindness in a stained-glass window than in a holy book. Spending time in beautiful spaces, far from a self-indulgent luxury, was deemed to lie at the core of the quest to become an honorable person.